IATA has found that Gulf Air in its present form conforms to more than 900 standards in eight operational areas, including flight operations, operational control and flight dispatch, aircraft engineering and maintenance, cabin operations, ground handling, cargo operations and operational security. Under IOSA (IATA's (International Air Transport Association) Operational Safety Audit ) the airline is on a compliance register which enables it to be part of IATA. Gulf Air's IOSA renewal was carried out by Aviation Compliance Solutions and it supposedly ensures that the highest level of operational safety and regulatory compliance has been achieved - and will be maintained. However, at an extraordinary meeting on Saturday, Gulf Air's board endorsed Oman's request to pull out of the airline partnership, leaving Bahrain as the sole owner. This exeunt by Oman follows on from a CEO change at the top and an announcement about redundancies, aircraft fleet shrinkage and route retractions. Gulf Air is undergoing a fairly drastic downsizing metamorphosis that would seem, to a lay observer, to be an invalidating factor for its newly won IOSA status. Some in the industry believe that Gulf Air's misfortunes (and the Omani departure) are more to do with nepotism in the higher echelons and a now non-existent policy of free or heavily discounted tickets for influential Bahrainis. At a time when other airlines are scrabbling after pilot talent, Emirates and Etihad must be thanking Gulf Air's previous management for getting it so wrong. Related Story